


Brother, Please Come Home

by SimmeringSun



Category: Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, The Protomen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Family, Fix-It, Gen, Major Character Injury, Recovery, or lack thereof
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 13:37:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15316653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimmeringSun/pseuds/SimmeringSun
Summary: Mega Man drags the corpse of his brother out of the city, and with shaking hands he brings him to life. If only getting him to come home was easier.(Takes place after The Protomen Act 1. Mixes Megaman universe with Protomen universe.)





	Brother, Please Come Home

For what seemed like an eternity there was silence and dark. Until it all came rushing back.

A distant man’s back. The tears he was unable to cry. A melody from the past. A brother’s pleas. And then a blinding light.

“I’m so sorry.”, He heard someone say through the ringing in his sound receptors. The voice was hoarse and it mumbled the phrase, almost like the phrase had been said hundreds of times before. “Please, please wake up.”

And so he did.

With as much strength as he could give, he pushed himself up and forced his eyelids open. Everything came to him at once.

There was something wrong with him. It felt like his middle was a thread of wires and everything sparked and burned. The only sound that escaped him was a robotic whir, but it gave a gasp of surprise out of the person next to him. He wished he could see who the person is, but everything is bright and oversaturated to a point where it can hardly be called seeing.

“Protoman, Protoman can you hear me?”

He nodded, afraid nothing would come out again but those awful retching sounds. He thinks he knows who the voice next to him belongs to, and he hopes he is wrong.

“I tried fixing you!”, The voice says. “I took these tools from Dr. Light’s lab and brought us here. I can’t do it, I can’t fix you right.”

“Ok”, He says and feels relieved. Then he feels unsafe. “Go.”

“Go? I’m not leaving! I’ve decided: I’m going to stay with you. I’m going to stay with my brother.”

“Not..not your brother.”, He says through gritted teeth as he rubs the spot between his eyes. The statement he said rang true in his ears. If the two were brothers, then Dr. Light was his father. If Dr. Light was his father then this all would not have happened.

“We are brothers! We were made by the same hands, and we were raised in the same house. We both have the same sister. We both have the same father. They’re worried..about both of us.”, Megaman said. Protoman snorts.

“You don’t even know..what you’re talking about.”, He says. His speech was coming back. “Speak no more of this matter. I’m leaving.”

“Ok, where are we going?”

“Alone.”

“I don’t think you understand. I’m not leaving.”, The younger robot says defiantly and the other mumbles a curse.

“So be it.”, He says. He can lose the other easily...if he could only see.

He rubs his eyes vigorously. He takes long blinks and opens his eyes to a bright red each time. He can work with this. He had to, because he was not going to look for help. He was not going to rely on anyone but himself.

So he gets up on shaky legs and winces when he feels sparks all over. His core feels unstable. He looks to where he thinks the other is and scowls.

“Your father..and your sister will miss you. They will always wonder where you are. They will always look out the window and hope to see you making your way back. But I will never go back. So if you go with me, it will be a one way trip.”, Protoman says. This will scare the other away. No matter how many times he said it, Protoman was not his family.

“Then..I’ll have to deal with that.”, Megaman says. He says it so smugly, like he’s making some point. Protoman doesn’t grace him with a response, and starts walking in a direction that he feels is right.

They are in some sort of forest. He can tell by the sounds of rushing water and the soft padding of grass beneath his busted boots.

The two of them trudged on, Protoman using all the clues that he could to not walk right into a tree. He didn’t know where he was going, and he had a strong feeling that Megaman didn’t know either. But the other didn’t raise any complaints. He just attempted to create conversation that Protoman would shut down with one word responses.

“So..do you like movies?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well do you like music?”

“Perhaps.”

“Well what kind of...wait where does this path lead to?”, Megaman asks in the middle of his sentence.

Protoman stops in his tracks and notices the change in terrain under his boots. There was a dirt road here. 

Without a word he starts following it and Megaman trails behind him.

“It’s starting to get kind of dark..”, Megaman says worriedly.

“It was always dark in the city. This is nothing.”, Protoman says. All he can still see is the blinding red.

“Well there’s lights in the city.”, Megaman says. “We should probably rest.”

“You can rest if you want to.”, Protoman says. Megaman huffs and says nothing.

The two walk on through the night, Megaman on edge the whole time.

“I don’t know how you see when it’s this dark”. Protoman resists the urge to laugh.

“Can’t we rest at that house over there? It looks abandoned.”, Megaman pleads. “Besides, you don’t look so good. I didn’t do that good of repairs and your shouldn’t be walking around.”

“Fine..We can stop at the house if there is no one in there.”, Protoman says. He can still feel loose wires sparking and it made him cringe. 

Megaman lets out a relieved breath of air and the two head over to the house, Protoman using the sounds of Megaman’s footsteps ahead of him to follow along.

When the two make it there they hear nothing. Megaman knocks on the door, and when there’s no answer Protoman opens it. The door is unlocked.

“It looks so old.”, Megaman says. “Hey there’s a TV over here!”

“Wonderful.”, Protoman mumbles. He was already regretting letting Megaman tag along, but there was nothing he could do.

“Protoman, can we watch a movie? I think I can get this TV up and running, and there’s some VHS tapes here.”, Megaman says with excitement. He’s forgotten who he’s talking to.

“Just like you got me ‘up and running’?”, Protoman says and he could just imagine the hurt on Megaman’s face. “I just want to go into rest mode.”  
“Ok. I think I’ll stay up for a bit.”, Megaman mumbles. 

Protoman goes into another room. He places his hands along the walls until he finds the corner, and he sits down. He tries to process everything today, but can’t keep up. He’s blinded and in bad condition, someone tried to kill him and jumbled him back together, and he has to deal with said person right now.

He can’t see Megaman as a brother. He’ll never let himself have that luxury.

He closes his eyes and rests. 

When he wakes up, he still sees red and he can hear the soft whirring of a resting Megaman next to him. He feels like recoiling and pushing the other away, but he finds that he doesn’t want to. 

He frowns at this. He also frowns because his energy wasn’t up all the way.

He shoots up when he hears the sound of a door opening.

“Protoman? What’s wrong?”, Megaman asks as he whirs awake. Protoman shushes him quickly and points to the direction of the door. 

He begins to take slow steps to where he remembers the door is. He can’t do anything if it’s someone hostile. He wouldn’t even know who it was, but he still walks on anyways.

“Breakman.”, He hears a voice say and he sighs. Shadowman.

“You’re in even worse wear than I thought. This kid really fucked you up.”, He says with amusement.

“I’m glad you find this funny.”, He says. “What do you want?”

“To take you back to Dr. Wily of course. You really gave us a scare there. Luckily, Dr. Wily had a location chip installed into you.”, Shadowman says. “Oh? Hello there blue one. Keeping Breakman hostage? How cute.”

“I’m not keeping anyone hostage!”, Megaman says. “And his name is not Breakman.”

“Well, if you’re not keeping him here, then I’m taking not-Breakman with me.”, Shadowman says.

“I never agreed to that.”, Protoman says. He didn’t want to fight anymore.

“You what?”, Shadowman asks. Protoman could hear his steps coming closer to him and he takes some steps back. It would be nearly impossible to win a fight against the other in this condition, but he can’t go back.

“I don’t think you understand.”, He says. He has his hands on Protoman’s scarf now, holding him in the air. “You don’t get a choice in this.”

Protoman struggles to get free, attempting to shoot the other with his blaster. His blaster made a gargled noise. This was it. He was going back to Wily’s.

“Hey!”, He heard an angry shout. “Put him down, and fight someone who’s not injured!”

“Megaman, shut up.”, Protoman says. He yelps when Shadowman abruptly drops him to the ground and steps over to Megaman.

“Are you his guard-dog?”, Shadowman asks.

“Worse, I’m his brother.”, Megaman says.

“You gave us a lot of trouble when you decided to come over with your human crowd and destroy our robots. You walked away from those humans, huh? I’m surprised you’re not walking away from this pathetic scrap metal.”, Shadowman says. “How about this, we’ll fight, and if I win, I’m taking you both back.”

“Fine with me.”, He hears Megaman say.

“No.”, Protoman says as he stands up. Sparks fly out of him and it takes a lot to just take a step. “You’re fighting me.”

Before the two of them could say anything, Protoman takes a blind swing at what he hopes is Shadowman. He feels a hand catch his wrist, and with a precise movement, his hand is ripped off.

Protoman staggers back and yells. 

“Stay out of this Breakman. I don’t want to give more for the doctor to fix.”, Shadowman says.

“The only one he’ll be fixing is you!”, Megaman says with rage. He hears a blast being shot and stars being thrown. Protoman feels helpless. Here Megaman was defending him, after he made him incapable to fight. He didn’t understand.

It’s all a whirl of red, but he can hear the two barrel outside and fight. He takes a step out the door.  
“Stay back Proto!”, Megaman yells. He feels like yelling something akin to “no”, but he does nothing. Why couldn’t he do anything. Why wasn’t he helping?

Through the sounds of whirring and fast movement, he remembers the crowd of people. He remembers the scared faces as Wily’s robots beat him to the ground. He remembers their broken cries as he was reduced to nothing. He wonders...is this what they felt like?

“If he is your brother, then why did you try to kill him?”, He hears Shadowman ask.

“Because..because I felt that I had to. But I was wrong.”, Megaman answers. 

Protoman feels like crying. Or fighting. Something other than standing here feeling useless.

He hears a loud crash and the sound of Megaman’s blaster hitting a surface. He hears the sound of metal being bashed over and over again.

“Go, and never come near my brother.”, Megaman says. 

“Oh I won’t after this.”, Shadowman says with a garbled laugh. He sounds broken. “Your brother is a ticking bomb.”

“What do you mean?”, Protoman asks.

“I mean, that day that Dr. Wily took you in after he pummeled you, he didn’t fix you. He just replaced your weak core with a more unstable nuclear core. It’ll explode if it’s not well-maintained.”, Shadowman says. “So go ahead and play house out here, but when you’re ready to live, you know where to find us.”

“Wait!”, Megaman says, but Protoman can already hear the sound of Shadowman teleporting away.

“That..that was not your fight.”, Protoman says.

“I know. It was ours.”, Megaman says. “What he said...we need to go back to Dr. Light.”

“No.”, Protoman says. “No, I can’t go back there.”

“Why not?”, Megaman screams out. “You’re going to die if you keep this up. You’re broken in so many places. You can hardly move right! Why can’t you just face him? You can have him fix you up, and we could leave afterwards.”

“You don’t understand. Dr. Light will not fix me.”, Protoman says.

“Why? Because you worked for Dr. Wily for a bit? He’ll understand, and he’ll forgive you! You’re his son.”, Megaman tries to reason.

“I’m not his son! You are his son.”, Protoman says. “I’m not going back.”

“He can have more than one son. I know it seems I took your place, and I’m sorry, but I can’t replace his love for you. I never can.”

“No..you don’t understand.”, Protoman says through grit teeth. “What is your name?”

“What?”

“What. Is. Your. Name.”, Protoman says.

“Well..my names Megaman, but I’m also named Rock.”, Megaman answers confused.

“And can you cry Rock? Did Dr. Light let you choose whether or not you want to fight? Did you have normal clothes besides fighting armor?”

“Well yeah..but I don’t get where you’re going with this..”

“Well I never got any of that! I was made just to fight! Dr. Light never saw me as his son.”, Protoman says. He thinks of those nights he’d chance a visit to the old lab. He’d look through the windows on the twentieth floor and see Rock and Roll having fun and being kids. He’d feel angry and cheated, but now he just feels sad. It’s too much.

“I’m...I’m sorry.”, Megaman says softly. “I didn’t know...but I do know that Dr. Light still loved you. I think he regrets not treating you like he treats me.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore Megaman. I’ve made up my mind.”, He says. He’s ready. He can finally choose.

“What do you mean?”, Megaman asks.

“I’m going to stay here. I’m going to stay here and die.”, Protoman says.

“What are you even saying?”, Megaman yells. “I’ll force Dr. Light to fix you. I’ll even hold Wily at gunpoint and get him to fix you, but I’m not letting you die.”

“When I go...and if you’re near, the we’ll both be gone.”, Protoman says.

“Then I guess we’ll both die together.”, Megaman says. He says it with such certainty. He has no fear over his well being.  
“You’ve done enough. You can leave. You tried taking my life, and you just saved it. You can go.”, Protoman says.

“It was never about getting even.”, Megaman says. 

“Just go.”, Protoman forces. He feels some sort of desperation clawing inside of him. 

“You’ll never feel alone again.”, Megaman says. “I promise.”

“Rock...please shut up.”, Protoman says. He doesn’t want to hear that. He doesn’t want to admit how it makes him feel. He doesn’t feel like talking about this anymore. “If you’re staying, then you should fix that TV.”

“I was thinking more of maybe fixing your hand.”, Megaman says. He lets out a sigh. “You’re a mess.”

“Did..”, Protoman says hesitantly. “Did you get hurt in the fight?”

There’s a long silence that makes Protoman regret asking the question. This was one of those times where getting his vision back would have been very helpful.

“No.”, Megaman says. He sounds happy for some reason. “No, I didn’t get hurt. Just a couple of scuffs.”

“Yeah, me too.”, Protoman says as he wipes imaginary dirt off of him. Megaman laughs.

“Yeah, I wish. Alright, let’s get that hand fixed..”, Megaman says.

The two go back inside the house and Megaman attaches his hand back on the best he could.

“There.”, He says. “I think I’m getting better at this.”

“Thanks.”, Protoman says. He tests the hand and can feel the sparks fly every time he moved a finger. He says nothing though. This was the best Megaman could do.

Protoman sits silently as he listens to Megaman fiddle with the TV. He thinks about what Shadowman revealed and feels angered. Of course, there was a chance that Shadowman pulled the threat out of thin air as a last resort to get Protoman to come back, but it made sense. Why would Wily just fix him after their history? He talked of worth and how Dr. Light treated him unfairly. He was so desperate to feel validated that he played right into Wily’s hands. He feels like a fool. He was done trusting doctors.

“Hey! I got it on!”, Megaman says triumphantly.

And their Megaman was: saving Protoman and not expecting anything back. It made Protoman feel uneasy, like he had a tab that needed to be paid. The odd thing was, Protoman doesn’t doubt that Megaman is doing all this out of the goodness of his heart. He doesn’t want anything from Protoman besides Protoman to be. He imagines a scenario where they do go back to the lab. He imagines Megaman yelling at the doctor. He imagines Megaman making the doctor fix him. And he feels safe.

“Let’s see. They have quite a selection here. Hey, there’s a zombie movie!”, Megaman says. “I like scary movies.”

If he doesn’t go back, he’ll die. That doesn’t really bother him though. He was always fine with dying. He was always ok with laying down his life. His stubbornness and regrets that were holding him away from the lab were risking Megaman’s life now. He was a time bomb. He can feel his core fester and pop inside of him. It would probably take this whole house with him.

“Of course, movies with rock in them are better. You know, I feel like you’d be a blues guy.”

He doesn’t know how he feels about Megaman. He was so filled with rage while looking down on him over Wily’s sea of robots. Now..he feels something he has never felt before. Something similar to how he once felt about Dr. Light. If this is what brotherhood feels like, maybe he doesn’t mind. He always desired to be free; to make his own choices. He was barred by the past in his mind. Barred by his past decisions and the wrong done to him. Maybe it was time to get out of that cell. Maybe it was time to go home.

“Hey, Rock?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go to the lab.”

….

“Ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I feel abou this one. One more chapter to go


End file.
